Galena’s Campbell Allen receives BSA National Heroism Award

By LENNY C. LEPOLA

News Assis­tant Man­ag­ing Editor

Most Boys Scouts plan the awards they want to receive as they move through scouting’s ranks. They set goals and per­form the nec­es­sary steps to achieve those goals, and the awards are bestowed. On rare occa­sions, how­ever, a Boy Scout receives an award for respond­ing to an unex­pected emer­gency sit­u­a­tion, using skills learned in scouting.

That’s what hap­pened to BSA Troop 192 mem­ber Camp­bell Allen. Dur­ing a Mon­day, Decem­ber 10, Troop 192 Court of Honor at the Cen­tral Col­lege Pres­by­ter­ian Church in West­er­ville, Camp­bell received the Boy Scouts of Amer­ica National Hero­ism Award.

BSA’s National Hero­ism Award is not casu­ally given out. There is a rigid screen­ing process, and of the over 2.5 mil­lion boys involved in scout­ing, only 121 of them received a National Hero­ism Award in 2011; and only 5,922 National Hero­ism Awards have been given out since the award was cre­ated in 1923.

Camp­bell was nom­i­nated for the award for his life-saving actions when his father, Roger Allen, suf­fered a super ven­tric­u­lar tachy­car­dia episode while hik­ing to Old Man’s Cave at Hock­ing Hills State Park last December.

“We were back­pack­ing near Old Man’s cave and my heart­beat went up to 200 beats per minute and stayed that way,” Roger said. “Camp­bell rec­og­nized the symp­toms, and being a Boy Scout he was pre­pared — he made me sit down and admin­is­tered first aid for tachy­car­dia, hypother­mia, dehy­dra­tion and shock.”

But that wasn’t the end of the sit­u­a­tion for Camp­bell and his father — who’s heart rate con­tin­ued to race at 200 bpm. Campbell’s cell phone would not work. Another hiker finally came along who was able to get a sig­nal with his phone car­rier, a 911 call was made, and then there was the wait.

“It was a good three miles to the ranger sta­tion, they had to hike in,” Roger said. “Camp­bell was the only one who knew where we were on the trail, so he guided them in; when they where nearby he used his whis­tle as a dis­tress sig­nal. It took the rangers and para­medics 45 min­utes to get there.”

Para­medics per­formed emer­gency med­ical pro­ce­dures on Roger on-site try­ing to get a nor­mal heart rhythm going; then had to carry him out to the ranger sta­tion where a heli­copter was wait­ing to take him to Fair­field Med­ical Cen­ter in Lancaster.

“That’s where it really became trau­matic for Camp­bell because he couldn’t go with me,” Roger said. “He never knew if he would see me again. He was at the ranger sta­tion for sev­eral hours before some­body was able to take him to Lancaster.”

Roger said it was a pretty severe sit­u­a­tion with his heart rac­ing that fast for three hours before doc­tors were able to get it under control.

“In March I had heart abla­tion surgery so it won’t hap­pen again,” Roger said. “Camp­bell is 13 years old now, but he was 12 at the time. It’s amaz­ing the com­po­sure and pre­pared­ness he had in deal­ing with a cri­sis sit­u­a­tion. Many 12-year-olds would’ve pan­icked, but he took over and used his scout train­ing. I can hon­estly say I’m here today because of Campbell’s actions.

“It was a very trau­matic expe­ri­ence for all of us, and espe­cially for Camp­bell,” Roger added. “This is the first-time the Boy Scouts of Amer­ica National Hero­ism Award has been given to a troop mem­ber in the Simon Ken­ton Coun­cil. It’s very rare, not an award Boy Scouts just hand out.”

The Allen’s are Galena res­i­dents. Camp­bell is in the eighth grade at Big Wal­nut Mid­dle School. In addi­tion to scout­ing, Camp­bell plays soc­cer, lacrosse and runs cross country.

Roger Allen works as a Com­mer­cial Lines Prod­uct Man­ager for Nation­wide Insur­ance. Roger is one of the Troop 192 assis­tant scout­mas­ters, and helps coach mid­dle school lacrosse.

Posted by Gary Henery on Dec 12 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.